Redemption Heights Church

In one of the most famous passages in the New Testament, Paul gives a clear vision of God's love and calls us to reflect that love to those around us as a tangible expression of the love of Christ.

Every believer is gifted by the indwelling Holy Spirit and is called to use those gifts to exalt Jesus and build up the church.

The most extensive discussion of the ordinance of the Lord's Supper is occasioned by problems in the Corinthian church in chapter 11. The Lord’s Supper is intended to be a visible reminder amid our gathering as a church of the gospel and all of its dimensions. Still, the Corinthians were experiencing all sorts of division and partiality. Paul calls them to self-examination and repentance.

In one of the more perplexing Biblical passages, Paul addressed particular problems in the Corinthian church. He calls them to holiness and love in the midst of a morally compromised culture. He covers topics that include authority, headship, and decorum in church gatherings.

Dealing with particular issues in the Corinthian church surrounding meat sacrificed to idols, Paul highlights the church's holy identity and calls each of us to use our freedom for God's glory and the good of our neighbors.

How should we use our lives and our freedom? We should use them for the sake of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 9, we see Paul using his own life as an example for the Corinthians church of how to use one's freedom for the advancement of the gospel.

Many of these chapters in 1 Corinthians 8-10 deal with freedom, authority, and personal rights. Your freedom in Christ is not a call to do whatever you want but an opportunity to serve others in love.

Even in our culture, which seems to be drifting from marriage as the norm, it can be easy for singleness to be viewed as a problem to be solved rather than a gift to be invested in the Kingdom of God. What would it look like to recognize, accept, and leverage my calling for the mission of God?

We can flourish in our current circumstances knowing that God has placed us there on purpose for his purpose. Contentment is not about finding something new as much as it is about seeing what God has given you as the gift it is. The reason can abide in our circumstances is because we can abide with God.

In this section of 1 Corinthians, Paul deals with questions the church had relating to sex, marriage, and singleness

Jesus Christ is the light that shines in the darkness of our world.

We should rejoice at the advent of Jesus, our Savior.

The depth of God’s love is revealed by the value of his sacrifice.

The gospel calms our fears and brings peace to our hearts, compelling us to joyfully worship and gladly tell others about Jesus!

Jesus is the hope of all the earth.

When we recognize that God has rightful authority over us, including our bodies, we can joyfully glorify him by fleeing sexual immorality.

The world should be able to come to the church to experience the power of God. But, too often, the church itself won’t even go to the church; they go to the world for solutions to their problems. How can we handle the “keys of the kingdom” if we can’t even handle the trash in our pews?

When a church takes the gospel and the spiritual health of its members seriously, it will practice church discipline. Church discipline is meant to protect the testimony of the church and the purity of its members. The goal of discipline is restoration, holiness, and health.

Paul admonishes the church to follow his fatherly example in humbly seeking unity and avoiding the dangerous consequences of their pride.

What does a successful life look like? Paul gives a vision of success that looks different than the definition the world often provides.

What does it look like to take seriously that we (as believers) are the temple of God? The reality and significance of God's presence that changes what we value and how we live.

If all of life is meant to be lived for Christ, then what kind of life are you living? What kind of church are we building?

There is wisdom hidden from the world available to anyone in Christ. The Spirit of God reveals it, but it remains opaque to the unspiritual. We are called to the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of this age; the Spirit of God, not the spirit the world offers; the revelation of God, not what the rulers of this age know. If this is going to happen, we will have to grow in our knowledge, love, and trust...

God can use a simple message from a trusting messenger to communicate his love to the world. In God’s economy, the weakest and most dependent are the most useful for him.

Rather than being united in the gospel, the church in Corinth was just as divided as the rest of the world. The church should be a place of diverse unity but, too often, it has just as many internal cliques as everyone else.